Feds investigate NJ governor over Superstorm Sandy relief funds

Days after a traffic scandal transposed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to the center of a federal probe, a United States congressman now says the embattled Republican is being investigated for allegations he misspent millions of dollars in relief aid.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) asked the inspector general of
the United States Housing and Urban Development Department back
in August to examine how Gov. Christie’s office spent around $25
million in federal aid from Washington meant to assist with
relief efforts following 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. Now five months
later, Pallone says he’s been told that the probe has expanded to
become “a full-blown investigation,” the second of such
to be launched in under a week against the Christie
administration.

ABC News reported earlier Monday that Pallone told them he was
notified at the end of last week that the preliminary results of
the HUD investigation have prompted auditors to ramp-up their
probe.

"There's reason to believe there's a problem here,"
Pallone told ABC.

Critics of the Christie administration have raised concerns in
recent months over allegations that the governor may have misused
federal aid money, particularly with regards to the “Stronger
than the Storm” advertising campaign launched in the aftermath of
Sandy to help reinvigorate tourism in New Jersey, in order to
benefit his own reelection efforts ahead of the November 2013
election.

When Pallone wrote to HUD in August, he acknowledged that New
Jersey hired public relations firm MWW to assist with the
“Stronger than the Storm” campaign, despite receiving a proposal
from another qualified company that would have cost around $2
million less.

Ultimately the state awarded MWW a contract for $4.7 million to
create the “Stronger than the Storm” campaign, the likes of which
involved an advertising blitz that heavily relied on images of
Gov. Christie and his family. The Christies were absent from
less-expensive proposals submitted by competing companies.

"While promoting tourism at the Jersey Shore in the wake of
Hurricane Sandy is certainly a worthy endeavor, recent reports
have led me to believe that the state has irresponsibly
misappropriated funding allocated by Congress from the Sandy aid
package and taken advantage of this waiver for political
purposes," Pallone wrote to HUD in August.

"Had Governor Christie chosen the less expensive firm, $2.2
million in federal disaster aid could have potentially been
directed elsewhere, for example, to provide 44 Sandy-impacted
homeowners $50,000 grants to raise their homes," Pallone
said in a press release.

The lawmaker now says that HUD’s investigation has been expanded,
and a full audit will of the $25 million will be completed during
the next several months.

"This was money that could have directly been used for Sandy
recovery. And, as you know, many of my constituents still haven't
gotten the money that is owed them to rebuild their homes or
raise their homes or to help," he told CNN

The latest scandal to impact Christie’s office comes less than a
week after scandalous
emails revealed that high-placed staffers within his
administration manufactured a traffic jam by closing down lanes
near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey,
reportedly in retaliation for that town’s mayor’s reluctance to
endorse the incumbent ahead of the gubernatorial election in
November. Christie has taken disciplinary action against no fewer
than two of his staffers in the days since, and on Thursday the
office of US Attorney Paul J. Fishman confirmed
that they were reviewing whether a federal law was implicated as
a result of the lane closures.

During a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Christie said he was
“embarrassed and humiliated” by the traffic scandal. His
office had not publically responded to the latest probe as of
Monday morning.